Ooty: No forest veterinarian for six months
Efforts should be made to fill up all existing vacancies for better conservation, Mr Kumaran said.
Ooty: MTR, a premier tiger reserve, has gone without a permanent forest veterinarian for nearly six months now. “The government, instead of looking to animal husbandry department to depute a veterinarian to MTR, should create a forest veterinarian post exclusively to deal with wildlife affairs and to take care of the health of the wild animals,” said B.K. Kumaran, President of Nilgiris Ecology and Animals Protection Samithi.
He also said that forest department should set up a ranger post to monitor remote and sensitive Thengumarahada jungles in the foothills of Nilgiris, bordering Sathyamangalam tiger reserve, which is now a MTR buffer zone.
More anti-poaching camps should be established in the Thengumarahada woods as the landscape there is such that it would help the poachers and anti-social elements to sneak in easily,he pointed.
There is up to 25 per cent vacancies related to posts of field staff such as foresters and forest guards in MTR. Efforts should be made to fill up all existing vacancies for better conservation, Mr Kumaran said.